World's Largest Industry Research Articles

Managing the Impact of Tourism on the Environment

AbstractTourism is now the world's largest industry, generating earnings of £285 billion/annum. In recent years, the tourism sector has become a significant contributor to the wealth of the UK and represents about 7% of the workforce. Greater mobility and more leisure time has led to greater car use, many more short‐term movements of people, and increasing pressure on the transport infrastructure. Consequently, there is real concern about the effect of increased tourist activity on the environment and how the challenge of sustainable tourism can be achieved. This paper examines how the tourism industry is addressing that challenge by balancing the benefits of tourist activity without compromising the environment. In Wales, the Wales Tourist Board is committed to sustainable tourism, and its approach is offered as an example of achievement and how conflicting demands can be resolved.

The business of eHealth

Healthcare, as the world's largest industry, exhibits many inefficiencies, inequities and quality variations, much of this being attributable to inadequate information flow. Hence, in principle there should be business opportunities for eHealth, but, there has often been a failure to distinguish between the ‘e’ hype and the actual delivery of better, faster, cheaper and more reliable health-care processes. This paper looks beyond the hype and identifies the conditions that need to be met if some of the business potential of eHealth is to be realised.

Sustainable tourism and the touristic ecological footprint

There is growing interest in ecological footprint analysis in aiding our understanding of societal demands upon the biosphere. Increasingly, attention is being focused on potential new applications of the technique. Tourism is one of the world's largest industries and can play a major part in encouraging more consumerist lifestyles. It is now widely accepted that tourism development may have profound impacts on local environments, and that, consequently, the sustainable development of tourism at destination areas is an important issue. However, sustainable tourism studies rarely look beyond the destination area, and there has been no substantive recognition of the wider ecological footprint of tourism activities. This paper attempts to connect, conceptually, the realms of sustainable tourism and ecological footprint thinking. In so doing, various conceptualisations of the 'touristic ecological footprint' (TEF) are suggested, along with some potential applications. It is argued that primary research should focus on calculating the touristic ecological footprint associated with individual tourism products, throughout the product's life-cycle. As well as bringing another dimension to our understanding of tourism's actual ecological demand, it is also argued that the concept of the touristic ecological footprint may be used to clarify theoretical aspects of the sustainable tourism debate, helping to rejuvenate this debate in the process.

Trends in ocean and coastal tourism: the end of the last frontier?

Marine and coastal tourism is one of the fastest growing areas within the world's largest industry. Yet despite increased awareness of the economic and environmental significance of marine and coastal tourism it is only in recent years that a substantial body of research has emerged. This article provides a review of some of the coastal and marine tourism literature which focuses, in particular, on the environmental impacts of tourism. The article then notes the manner within which tourism is a component of integrated approaches towards coastal and marine management and some of the strategies that are utilised to manage tourism in a sustainable fashion.

Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable?

Is Sustainable Tourism Really Sustainable?

Shakespeare and Cultural Tourism

Tourism, the world's largest industry, despite derision and sleaze, is ever more important in global cultural life. All of us are tourists now and then, reluctantly or eagerly visiting the exotic, consuming the foreign, watching the great universal show. The past is particularly important for tourism: jet travel since about 1960 has become a form of time travel, allowing us glimpses of lost worlds, making us into historians of heritage and connoisseurs of the alien. Though tourists buy physical objects like souvenirs and clothing and great quantities of food and drink, as they once converted wild beasts into travel trophies, what they are actually after is immaterial. Tourists are modernity's paradoxical consumers who seek not merchandise but experience; the attractions of the world draw them with promises of sensation or renewal, inspiration or plain diversion. Experience is hard to commodity Visits can be structured as in safaris and cruises, but the touristic site is only the occasion for the adventure: seeing the Acropolis, touching its stones, is ultimately a prompt for an event that occurs in the mind of the visitor, as the meaning of a performance occurs in the mind of the spectator.

Debt-funded Environmental Swaps in Africa: Vehicles for Tourism Development?

African nations are caught in a web of alternatives to alleviate their massive debt burdens. This paper argues that among these alternatives, debt-for-nature swap programmes recently introduced in Africa have some potential towards economic growth through the vehicle of sustainable tourism. Tourism, which is now the world's largest industry, is a possible avenue toward providing the tone for conservation of both species and habitat and improving the lot of the affected local communities. Thus, while ecotourism or adventure tourism- the fastest growing sector of the industrycan be useful to conservation, it can, at the same time contribute to the course of economic development and help alleviate poverty.

Competing in software: Strategies for Europe's niche businesses

The computer software industry has, over the past 10 years, grown into one of the world's largest industries with world-wide sales estimated to be in excess of $100 billion. Despite the large size and international nature of the software industry, US firms tend to dominate. This article discusses a methodology that European software firms can use to identify potential strategies. This methodology is applied to eleven European software firms and the results are discussed. Based on the investigation, it appears that the methodology recommended in this article will provide European software firms with an effective method of developing firm strategy.

Nanoelectronics: The Key Technology of the 21st Century

As the size of semiconductor device structures continues to be reduced, it is expected that within less than four years the industry will reach an annual sales volume of $350 billion—making microelectronics probably the world's largest industry. The extraordinary advances now taking place include rapidly increasing integration densities, higher speeds and lower dissipation losses combined with reduced production costs.

In pursuit of ecotourism

Ecotourism is expected, by the tourism industry and academics, to grow rapidly over the next 20 years. Much has been written about ecotourism, often with missionary zeal, but there is little consensus about its definition. It is argued here that conservationists and protected area managers should adopt a definition of ecotourism which contributes to the maintenance of biodiversity and an appropriate definition is suggested. Ecotourism is not merely an alternative to mass tourism, nor is it the only alternative. The literature on nature tourism and the environmental impacts of the industry dates back to the late 1970s. Tourism is now the world's largest industry and it has an increasing impact on protected areas. Our understanding of these mechanisms, their ecological impacts and our capacity to manage tourism in protected areas lags behind the growth of tourism to protected areas. A rapid growth in nature tourism and tourism to protected areas has coincided with a shift in protected area management strategies towards integrated development. Tourism is one means available to protected area managers seeking to increase the economic value of a protected area and to offer sustainable opportunities for economic development to local people. This paper argues that potentially conflicting commercial, protected area and development interests all contribute to the emergence of ecotourism and have been doing so for many years. Ecotourism needs to be tightly defined if it is to benefit conservation. Protected area managers should consider how they can take control of nature tourism to the parks they manage and convert it into ecotourism for the benefit of conservation and the livelihoods of local people.

Ethics and Ecotourism

The world's largest industry is trying to become environmentally sensitive, but is it succeeding? Judy Karwacki, currently working towards an MBA, has an MA in Political Studies; she runs a travel agency in Saskatoon and has a very strong personal interest in ecotourism. Colin Boyd is Professor of Management at the College of Commerce, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Sask., Canada S7N 0W0, and an Associate Editor of this Review.

Electronic Markets in Tourism - Constraints and Opportunities

Tourism is the world's largest industry both in terms of participants and economic value. It is also wholly dependent on information. The customer travels to the product, In many cases to an unknown destination in a faraway country. Crucial purchases decisions have to be made in advance. This information-dependent environment should therefore provide excellent scope for the development of new electronic markets.

A framework for ecotourism

Tourism is one of the world's largest industry sectors (WTO 1991; WTTC 1993); and its environmental management issues are relatively little studied (Buckley and Pannell 1989; Butler 1991; Westcott and Molinski 1993; WTTERC 1993). Ecotourism is arguably its fastest growing subsector (Mat­thews 1993), but poorly defined. There are four main links between tourism and environment: components of the natural environment as the basis for a marketable tourism attraction or product; management of tourism operations so as to minimize or reduce their environmental impacts; economic or material contribution of tourism to conservation, either directly or indirectly; and attitude of tourists towards the environment and environmental education of clients by tourist operators. Therefore, there are environmental aspects to every major component of tourism business: products and markets, management, money, and people.

Book Reviews : Travel & Tourism: The World's Largest Industry (World Travel and Tourism Council, Brussels, Belgium, 1992, 136 pages, $200

Book Reviews : Travel & Tourism: The World's Largest Industry (World Travel and Tourism Council, Brussels, Belgium, 1992, 136 pages, $200

Third World Tourism:

Tourism has been seen by various observers as either a blessing or a curse for Third World countries. As international tourism becomes the world's largest industry and Third World countries increasingly turn to this industry as a means of development, it is important to examine these arguments in greater detail than is provided by the generalizations and anecdotes of most accounts. After reviewing the general arguments for and against Third World tourist development, a case study is presented assessing the impact of tourism in three areas of Nepal. Drawing on this example, implications are derived for Third World tourists, for Nepal, and by extension for other Third World countries which may learn from Nepal's experiences.

The Rigid Disk Drive Industry: A History of Commercial and Technological Turbulence

In its early years, the disk drive industry was led by a group of large-scale, integrated firms of the sort that Alfred D. Chandler, Jr., observed in his studies of several of the world's largest industries. The purpose of this history is to explore why it was so difficult for the leading disk drive manufacturers to replicate their success when technology and the structure of markets changed. The most successful firms aggressively developed the new component technologies required to address their leading customers’ needs, but this attention caused leading drive makers to ignore a sequence of emerging market segments, where innovative disk drive technologies were deployed by new entrants. As the performance of these new-architecture products improved at a rapid pace, the new firms were eventually able to conquer established markets as well. As a consequence, most of the integrated firms that established the disk drive industry were driven from it, displaced by networks of tightly focused, less integrated independent companies.

Applying Ethics to the Tourism Industry

The world's largest industry has received little ethical attention, yet it raises questions of consumer fairness, marketing and environmental and cultural integrity. The author has recently gained an MSc in Tourism Studies from the University of Surrey, and is currently working as an independent consultant in the tourism and leisure sector.

Market research in tourism: How important is it?

Even though tourism is probably the world's largest industry, only 5% of total market research turnover is in travel and tourism, indicating the relative underuse of research in the industry. The intangible nature of tourism and the lack of a truly free market place certain limits on market research's relevance, but the article suggests that the major barriers to its effective use are managerial attitudes and a lack of appreciation of how effective research can lead to increased profitability. In addition, the very areas where research would be most beneficial may well be those where it is most unlikely to be used: in understanding consumer motivations and in planning for the future.

Travel and Tourism Professional Education

Abstract In 1979, the famed futurist Herman Kahn predicted that tourism would be the world's largest industry by the year 2000. Eight years later, Somerset Waters, editor of The Big Picture (1987 edition of the Travel World Yearbook) stated that tourism is now the world's largest industry, comprising 11.4 percent of the world's GNP. Spending for the world's domestic and international tourism is larger than the GNP of any country in the world except the U.S. Waters also reported that worldwide spending for trips 25 miles or more from home reached almost $2 trillion in 1986, generating 64.3 million jobs directly or indirectly.

Environment/behavior training for mid‐career tourism professionals

The last two decades have been characterized by rapid growth of the tourism industry and increasing awareness of the environmental and social impacts of development. Tourism and travel is the third largest industry in the United States generating approximately seven per cent of the GNP [1]. In 1976, 4.4 million people were employed in travel related jobs [2]. The industry is expected to continue to expand and play an increasingly important role in the economy. By the year 2000, it is estimated that tourism will be the world's largest industry [3]. This research focuses in the state of Pennsylvania, which ranks fifth in travel economic impact in the U.S. [4]. During 1976, travelers in Pennsylvania spent $4.69 billion and the industry employed 181,000 people [5].